How to stop a young horse from biting!?!? NATURALLY!?!?
He is young and probably teething. It would be worth getting his teeth checked, especially as you don't know his age and really should if he is being ridden. A 2 year old shouldn't be ridden, and most riding schools would never put a child with disabilities on any horse younger than 5 or 6 let alone one that bites. As Bard said, in a herd if a horse bit then it would be bitten back. With young horses, my opinion if they bite is to reprimand them as they would be if they bit another horse, to put them in their place. Rather than hitting, if I get a proper bite I usually pinch the nose or even bite it back to a similar degree! Another method is just to block the horse when it tries to bite. To do this you have to be aware of the horse and just put an arm up to block if the horse goes to nip you. This won't work if the horse is a serious biter, but it can work if the horse is just wanting something to chew on. This behaviour should be tackled before the horse is used by children or you could have a real problem. Good luck.
Does your dog seem to have a good understanding of what is expected of it, or does it attempt to take strides and stretch limits?
This can really depend on the breed or breed mix, in part. But it primarily depends on YOU. If a dog is not raised properly, consistently, thoughtfully, then like a child, it will do what it wants, what it thinks you want, or try to get away with things.For instance, if you don’t allow your dogs on the furniture, but don’t teach the dog that from day one, but only holler and scream when it gets up on the sofa, that is NOT teaching - you are reacting, and when your back is turned, the dog will be back up on the sofa, because it only knows that you’re angry when you are there! (Our dogs are allowed on the furniture, so that’s not an issue)Some dogs are just very chill. They don’t test limits. Others do - but please understand that just as with people, there are different reasons for testing limits. Some dogs just really love to play, have great sense of humor, and like games. Our Dobermans were like that. They knew their manners, and were well trained. But sometimes they just wanted to be goofy, and would purposely act up - but it was easy to tell when they just wanted a game, and it was fine. If we ever needed them to get serious, all we had to do was say so.Some dogs are stubborn, and test boundaries. Usually this is because they haven’t been patiently and consistently trained, and they realize their human is not the leader. They may be breeds that were bred for independent thinking, or to be stubborn and persistent (terriers are known for this). If you aren’t at least a little bit smarter than your dog, you are in trouble.Some dogs are just dense. They aren’t being sassy - they just aren’t particularly smart. They may not really understand or retain the training, and would need consistent, persistent reinforcement - dogs are not like people. They aren’t mean or nasty, they don’t want to make you angry or upset… they are usually doing their best - but they need our guidance, and our commitment to teach them and reward proper behavior, not punish mistakes.
Bucket reared yearling has identity and behavioural problems, advice please!?
ok so i brought a hand reared colt yearling a couple of months ago, and got him gelded very soon after hes fantastic with different types of traffic, and does all the usual feet picking, grooming, fly spraying etc wonderfully and is very much people orientated however, he is very testing. he bites a lot, doesn't appreciate your personal space and is basically treating people as though they are fellow horses! He also is pretty bad at leading, either plants himself or else wants to lead you recently, whilst (trying) to lead him down to the field, he decided to plant himself, so i used a crop to tap him from behind. nothing. tapped firmer whilst also pulling on the lead rope. he goes to bite me, so i told him no in a very firm voice, instead of backing off however, he rears at me. he did this twice on the (short) way down to the field. and then again later whilst i was poo-picking in the field, he walks up too close to me and rears even though i (seemingly) did nothing to make him respond this way I know these are common behavioural problems in hand reared horses, so am putting it down to that so if anyone has any advice or similar experiences on how to nip this all in the bud whilst hes young, i would really appreciate it! NB: we only have two ponies, him and the other being a foal, so he is very much the boss of the field unfortunately! and it is not an option to get a mature horse or put him into a larger herd, as we are unable to do these, so please just advice on dealing with what we've got and how to make him learn we are "boss" thankyou in advance!
Do horse bites hurt?
Yes! The injury might not be as bad as if it was from a dog, since horses have blunt teeth, but they still have a strong jaw and can hurt a lot nonetheless. Fortunately, most horses only bite as sort of a “warning” when you do something they're not liking, and thus don't hurt too much since they don't apply too much force; or when you're feeding them by hand and they accidentally nip you (still hurts). But if they go serious, you can be assured it's gonna leave a mark, and if they catch your fingers… well, needless to say what can happen. The most severe injuries, if it’s a full-force bite, include broken bones and torn tissue, since they have enough strength to lift and toss you.Now, here’s a saving grace: they have a portion of their mouth with no teeth. That’s where we fit the bit when we’re riding them.When they bite you, there's a chance that they’ll go too far and fit your arm (the most likely part where you'll get bitten) in that interdental space. In that case only, you might feel some pressure, but it doesn't hurt too much because you’re in contact with softer tissue (gums and tongue), instead of teeth. That being said though, male horses do have 2 to 4 canines in that interdental space, for some unknown reason. Some mares also have them, but they’re much rarer. So don’t rely too much on that chance of getting your arm in that “not-so-safe” spot. It’s not easy to take an arm off the interdental space if the horse isn’t willing to open their mouth the slighest, so even if you do miss the teeth, there’s plenty of things they can do with you once you’re locked.
How can I introduce my new puppy to the older dog?
The first thing you have to do is introduce your new puppy to the existing ones.Some pets take weeks -months to get adjusted. It takes time . They might consider other one as a competition!Don't s :Don't spend more time with new puppy and vice versa.Don't allow the new puppy to use other’s bed ,toy and food bowl.Don't leave them alone till they adjust.Do's :Spend time with them equally2 . Teach them how to play/sleep togetherHow did I introduce them to each other?Don't hold puppy in your lap or arms, place it on the ground. This helps your old dog to sniff the puppy ( they usually sniff the butts ! It's like saying hi.. and understanding each other).1. Tiger taught Rocky everything ,they took 2 week to adjust. Tiger was running away ! After two weeks they were like best friends.2. Rocky taught Bruno everything ,took only two days to adjust !! Rocky was depressed when tiger left us. At the same time I rescued two puppies Bruno and spotty.3. Bruno taught Spotty everything ,they were together in their mother's womb ! But Bruno taught him how to climb stairs , drink milk etc.
I don't really understand this behavior?
Well aren't you in a pickle. Honestly, this behavior has been developing since you've had him. You may not have noticed it but somewhere along the lines you let him get away with the littlest of things, which leaves you here, stumped and not knowing what to do. Find something he does not like. Improvise. If he is that resistant to your discipline then honestly, even if you hate doing it, a good punishment is in order. I know you are small, but my trainer is tiny too and she handles big warmblood babies with ease. Its all about your approach. He finds it a game because he knows it annoys you. He's doing the "I'm not touching you! I'm not touching you!" Game. So sit there. Stand still. And if he's still, praise him and give him tons of love. Even a piece of an apple. If he starts to nip, walk away and go fiddle with something, pay no attention. Walk off in a relaxed fashion, not speedy and bothered. He will get bored, and stop. Praise him. Love love love. Keep doing it for about a week and if there isn't the slightest improvement then try something else. Try working with him twice a day. If that fails epically, gets some pots and pans. Again just stand there, and when he goes for the "I'm not touching you!" Game, spring at him and clash the pots and pans in his face, make him back all the way to the fence. Yell at him if you have to. Make yourself bigger than you are. Then stand there. He will probably lick and chew in contemplation. If he takes one step towards you, on with the banging and running and yelling. Smack him with the whip if you have to. Make him uncomfortable. Then stand, again. Wait a while, and if he stays put or walks away, praise the hell out of him. Yes, that may be extreme, but you have to improvise if classic methods do not work. You may have raised babies in the past but not all babies are the same.
Can horses in captivity turn on humans the way elephants can?
I don't know about “turning” on people, but people do get killed by horses: a horse's kick can be fatal. I'd expect from sheer numbers — people keep many more horses than elephants — that horses kill a lot more people.That said, it's hardly surprising if an elephant is in some sense more dangerous than a horse. For starters, an Asian elephant is maybe five or six times as big as your average riding horse.Additionally, horses have been domesticated and selectively bred for thousands of years — they may not be as adapted to coexistence with humans as dogs are, but there's been ample time to weed out the worst behaviours (or at least reduce prevalence).Elephants are tamed, but have never been domesticated; working elephants are still taken from wild herds, as far as I know. And they'd be terribly slow animals to domesticate, with long gestation and maturation and few offspring. You can breed a two-year-old mare (though you shouldn't) and she'll carry a foal in eleven months. The elephant reaches sexual maturity when it's ten years old or more and is gravid twice as long as a horse, so you can breed four generations of horses for every generation of elephants, and you can keep much more breeding stock since horses are much smaller and eat much less.Thus we're comparing domesticated horses to wild animals five times their size or more. No wonder if the latter should turn out to be more dangerous!I've discussed Asian elephants because they're the ones tamed for work. African elephants are larger and less tractable, so it all applies a forteriori.Finally, there's the phenomenon of musth, a periodic phenomenon in teenaged bull elephants where testosterone levels shoot to possibly as much as a hundred times normal and the elephant becomes extremely aggressive: think of it as roid rage, except much worse, and in an animal with spears jutting out of its face and the strength to crush cars and uproot trees. (Young African elephant bulls have been known to kill rhinos without provocation. Human interference has made the problem much worse by killing mature bulls: teenage bulls are less likely to enter musth if there's a larger bull around to keep them in check.)